The next major update to Zentools is now available and although it's not the major v2 milestone I was hoping for it's a worthwhile update for anyone using Zentools.

There are a number of important bug fixes in this release and importantly some fixes for the lightbox which seemed to have some trouble in some browsers (not mentioning any names) when it came to keeping track of responsive images and dynamic lightbox resizing.

The update also includes a couple of new effects (including a grayscale option for images) but the main focus of this release is to decouple it from the JB Library and the Zen Grid Framework. So now Zentools is a completely stand alone extension and handles all of the image processing and asset management by itself. We have also reorganised the asset location so it's all located in the media/mod_zentools folder.

This new version also loads the cached images in the core Joomla cache folder which means that you can now clear old images from the cache folder using the core Joomla cache function. This is also important for users of Admin Tools as Zentools will work out of the box now with it's htaccess rules.

So what is happening with v2?

Zentools v2 is effectively a re-write from the ground up and as such it's taking a little longer than expected. We have developed a plugin based architecture which will allow us to do a lot of extra new and exciting things.

Streaming multiple streams

The module will be able to reference multiple content sources within one instance of the module which will make it alot easier to create an all in one activity feed. So think Joomla content merged with K2 merged with Zoo content, merged with Sobi pro merged the latest image from a folder merged with a tweet merged with a flickr upload, dribbble shot, facebook status etc. Each stream will be referenced by it's own plugin so it will be easy to add new content sources simply by installing a new plugin.

Layouts are now plugins

In addition to opening up the content source, Zentools will also draw it's layout functionality from a plugin as well. So this will make it alot easier for us (and developers) to release new layouts for Zentools, breaking open the current restrictions on the Zentools layout options.

More drag and drop

The drag and drop fucntionality has also been improved and rather than a vertical list of tags the module will house an interactive grid of elements that can be dragged and resized. Making it alot easier to fine tune the placement of the elements within each instance of the module.

New Galleries

I also have some plans for some new gallery types that I think really open up what you can do with Zentools.

When is it coming?

My hope i that we will have a beta testing within the next four weeks so stay tuned for updates. If you'd liek to get in on the testing let us knwo via the forum and we will update you when test packages are available.

I'm very happy to announce the availability of our April Joomla template release - Arcadia.

Arcadia is a fun and creative responsive Joomla template that features an awesome header design from Glenn Thomas aka The Fox and the King. Glenn has a unique visual style and after meeting him a few months ago in the new studio space I couldn't wait to put his style into a Joomla template for you. I'll be publishing an interview with Glenn in the next few days so stay tuned if you want to find out more about this amazing Melbourne artist.

Arcadia is built on the T3 framework and features a tonne of theming options and some very flexible functionality. It's built to be compatible with our new Zenkit v2 release (Demo coming soon) so all of you K2 fans out there will be able to drop Arcadia into an existing or new K2 site without any trouble at all.

Zentools v1.9 is a relatively minor update but i thought it warranted a 0.1 increment. You can get a full rundown of the changes and fixes on the Zentools changelog. If you are new to Zentools - check out what it can do on the Zentools demo site.

No need for JB Library in Joomla 3

This new version no longer requires the JB Library plugin when using it in Joomla 3.0 - so there is one less plugin to install on your site now.

Folks using the module in Joomla 2.5 still need either the framework or the library installed to process images as well as load jQuery.

Filter mode now switches from titles to an icon trigger at a given threshold.

This new function works by allowing the user to specify a browser width at which to switch the filter view. So anytime the browser is wider than the nominated value then the filter view will use titles of the items as the triggers.

While any browser width smaller than the nominated width will use font icons as triggers.

Simply add a screen width as per the screenshot below and the module will do all of the work.

Zentools v2 is coming

Development on Zentools v2 has been underway for some time but it's starting to take shape. At the moment we are looking at ways to improve the layout control via a drag and drop interface.

Other changes of note are that Zentools v2 will be allowed to merge a number of different content sources into a single stream. We are currently fleshing out the plugin architecture which will allow us to do this but I'm pretty excited about what we will be able to do with this.

I'll post some more updates on progress in the next week or so and I hope to have either an alpha or beta of v2 out within a month.

I'm happy to announce the availability of Zentools v1.8 - our all in one responsive content and image gallery module. The main additions in this release are a beautiful new responsive lightbox, the introduction of font icons for some of the module assets and a new simple slideshow theme.

Responsive Lightbox for Zentools

One of the weak points in our responsive arsenal, up until now at least, has been the zentools lightbox. It certainly looked pretty but became problematic once you started changing the browser size or adding oversized content on smaller screens.

This release solves all of that by dropping in an elegant and intelligent responsive lightbox solution. The new lightbox will scale according to the viewers screensize and also cleans up the user interface to make it a much more inuitive experience for the end user.

The new lightbox also supports deep linking so it is possible to link directly to a lightbox element. Click here to see an example. In addition to this it also supports full screen mode for those browsers and os's that support that as well as a slick thumbnail viewer which becomes available when viewing image galleries.

Font Icons

I feel a little late to the party when it comes to font icons but I really love the flexibility they have to offer. If you are new to font icons as well they are basically icons which are embedded in a font file which you can style using plain old css. So it's possible to change the colour, size, background etc all with a little bit of css knowledge.

Font icons have been added to the carousel and accordion layouts by default and a new slideshow theme called "standard" uses the font icons in replace of the previous slideshow image assets.

The previous slideshow themes (now referred to as legacy slideshow themes) do not have the font icons implemented, in order to preserve backward comaptivility with previous Joomla template releases.

Standard slideshow theme

In addition to a few under the hood improvements to the slideshow, Zentools v1.8 also adds a new simple slideshow theme which as mentioned above incorporates the use of font icons for the navigation assets.

This theme will now be used a s a base for all future slideshwo themes and v1.9 and beyond of Zentools will start to include some more fleshed out and more "themed" slideshow layouts. I've been keen to keep the styling to a minumum until now, so that we could let the template do most of the work but future releases will start to implement specific and more developed styles for the slideshow.

This session is in addition to the talk I'll be giving about more general templating strategies during the conference program and will focus on getting into the nitty gritty of developing Joomla templates using our framework and other zen products.

What will it cover?

The session will be indepth and technical and cover the following:

Introduction to the Zen Grid Framework and the tools of the trade.

How to create your own custom template with the Zen Grid Framework.

Understanding layouts, media queries and custom template overrides.

Creating your own styles and adding effects using jQuery.

How to use Zentools as your one stop module for displaying content.

Creating advanced K2 layouts with Zenkit and the Zen Grid Framework

We are taking bookings

We have just started taking bookings for the session and there are limited places so please ensure you book early. The cost of the three hour session is $95 AUD and will be held on Thursday 17th January, 2013.

Full workshop program

As I mentioned I'm pretty excited about the line up for this Joomladay. For a full run down of the conference and workshop schedule check out the Melbourne Joomladay website.

Still a chance to win a free ticket to the Melbourne Joomladay

I'll be announcing the winner of our free ticket to the Melbourne Joomladay give away early next week - so if you will be in Australia in January and want to come leave a comment on that blog post and you could be the lucky recipient of a ticket to this exciting event.

I've just released Zentools v1.7 which adds a really handy new feature - the ability to load images in the module based on the users screensize. This means that you can now tell Zentools to load small images on mobile browsers and large images to desktops, which will significantly reduce the asset payload for our responsive Joomla templates on mobile devices.

Responsive jQuery

The new functionality comes courtesy of the response.js jQuery script which uses data attributes to determine which size image to load on the site according to your visitors screen size. This has the benefit of making sure that your image assets loaded through our zentools module are optimised for the context in which they are being viewed.

Up until now if you had loaded a full width slideshow on both desktops and mobile devices the same image was used for each. Now you can specify an optimum image size to display for each viewing size.

Large images for large screens

One of the complexities in developing this solution was that targeting images based on screen size was not always a linear affair. In the case of full width slideshows though, it's clear that you need large images for large screens ...

... and smaller images for smaller screens.

Small images for large screens and large images for small screens - say what?

This works fine until you need to apply the same logic to a grid or column based display. In most cases grid layouts created in Zentools display in a multi column format on large screens and a single column format on small screens. The result of this is that we actually require smaller images on the desktop ...

and slightly larger images on the mobile devices.

A flexible solution

The solution was to determine a number of different breakpoints that the user could target with various image sizes. And so zentools now has the following settings which allow you to specify the relative size of the images that you are displaying across some generic and arbitrary screen break points.

Allowing the user to determine the size of the image that is being displayed in the module and across a number of screenwidths means that we can now deliver optimised images to both mobile and desktops.

In depth documentation

I've written some indepth documentation regarding the process of implementing these new features as well as some limitations to be aware of. Please ensure you read through the Targeting images based on screen size in Zentools knowledgebase item before embarking on this new journey of freedom, flexibility and responsive fun.

I'm currently in the midst of finalising our next Joomla template release and have just updated one of the document pages related to Zentools. You can see the new doc on targetting featured items in Zentools here.

As of Zentools 1.5.5 it is now possible to target featured items in any zentools layout. The update adds no inherent styling to the module but creates a hook for us to target in our themes and for those of you who are building your own.

In particular Zentools has pulled in two of the new features into it's layout options.

Using Joomla 2.5 article images for the Zentools image

Joomla 2.5 now allows you to specify images for your content without the need to actually display them in the intro or full text of the item. Zentools has been doing this with K2 for a while, but now you can use an image in the module that isn't displayed in the item itself. The benefit for this is that you can use large images in the slideshow that do not then disrupt the flow of content in the content item itself.

Specifying alternate links in Joomla 2.5

One of the more common requests we have had over the years for our modules is to be able to specify a unique url for the item in the module. Joomla 2.5 allows us to do this easily so now via the url fields in the content item. If you have a unique url specified in the Joomla content item you can have that specific Zentools item link to an external url - this applies for both the lightbox and content item link options.

The filter view for list and grid layouts...

When I first developed version 1.0 of Zentools I left out the filter view option which can be still found in the older Microblog module - It soon became clear to me that I under estimated how popular this layout was.

Zentools 1.2 implements the filter option albeit in a slightly different way by using the item categories to sort and filter the items. So when your items in the module come from two or more categories (and you enable the category filter option) a list of the category titles is displayed above the module content.

When the user clicks on the category title it shows the items from that category and hides the rest. It does this via a lovely animation provided by the Isotope script.

Single item galleries in Zentools

Another useful addition to Zentools v1.2 is the ability to display a single item that leads to a lightbox gallery. The concept is simple but I'm sure this will come in useful for people wanting to use a single trigger to launch a gallery of images or content items in a fancybox lightbox.

So what's coming in v1.3?

This is actually where you get to have your say (again).

I'm looking at adding support for Zoo from Yootheme to the module and also adding flickr and twitter layout options.